The Greatest of All Time
A History of an American Obsession

Explores America's obsession with 'greatness' and what it suggests about those who can't stop talking about it.

Zev Eleff (Author)

9781009572736, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 March 2025

238 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm, 0.49 kg

'This lively and enjoyable volume provides case studies that explore the values and the dilemmas of American celebrity culture. … [Eleff] demonstrates persuasively that celebrities have shaped our contentious reputational politics from the dawn of the twentieth century. If not theoretically dense, Eleff's rich accounts make for that category of writing that might best be embraced as sociological beach reading.' Gary Alan Fine, Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews

Americans love to talk about 'greatness.' In this book, Zev Eleff explores the phenomenon of 'greatness' culture and what Americans really mean when they talk about greatness. Greatness discourse provides a uniquely American language for participants to discuss their 'ideal' aspirational values and make meaning of their personal lives. The many incarnations and insinuations of 'greatness' suggest more about those carrying on the conversation than they do about those being discussed. An argument for Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt over George Washington as America's greatest statesman says as much about the speaker as it does about the legacies of former US presidents. Making a case for the Beatles, Michael Jordan, or Mickey Mouse involves the prioritization of politics and perspectives. The persistence of Henry Ford as a great American despite his toxic antisemitism offers another layer to this historical phenomenon. Using a variety of compelling examples, Eleff sheds new new light on “greatness” and its place in American culture.

Introduction
1. The economics of American greatness
2. The problem of the great all-knowing answer man
3. The rise and fall of the great changemakers
4. How the Babe became the greatest (and the Roosevelts, too)
5. The great counterculture conundrum
Conclusion: Michael Jordan in the 'age of lists'
Index.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]